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Friday, October 12, 2012

The Posturometer

Sitting up straight? Spine aligned? Eyes at attention?

Well if they aren’t, it’s not all your fault. It’s mine as
well. Posture communicates a lot more than one would think about one’s state of
mind, but it’s a mutual relationship. In the tutoring session, we see posture
in the student as a duality: it measures his commitment to the content and his
enthusiasm towards the session.

I’m a TV writing major, so let me tie it back to that. If
I’m writing an intensely emotional character scene or climax, I’m not
slouching. My eyes are too close to
the keyboard most of the time, my spine is pointed straight to the sky, and my
fingers are at attention.

The closer I get to the screen, the closer I am to the
content. The closer the student is to the paper, the closer he is to the
content.

If we see a student leaning back, stradling the chair,
dangling one hand between his legs as he writes with the other– his position
coming into the session is clear. But here comes the second part: posture also
shows us how well the tutor is doing in the session! The changes we notice in
our writers pinpoint the constant emotional flux of the session.

If we excite the student or get him to open up, it is almost
undoubted that he will sit up straight and lean in. Here we find a variation of
the above rule: the closer the student is to the tutor, the closer he is to the
session.

This isn’t to say that we should try to make writing
sessions into love fests, rather that we have the ability to gauge what the
student is feeling without having to ask him. Posture is a golden and almost
unfallible indication of the student’s placement in a session. By processing
his or her’s body language, we can better adjust the session in a holistic way,
as many writing center theorists encourage.

I’d like to tie this up by saying that posture isn’t
exclusively a writing-based determinant. It is a measurement that unites the
metaphysical world of thoughts, enthusiasm, and focus with the physical world
in which we operate.

I once had a French horn instructor who told me that she got
the chance to interview a master of music on the three most imporant things to
playing music well. He said number one was posture. He said number two was
posture. And he said number three was how well the brass was polished.

Kidding. It was posture.

Check yours right now, and then let me how I did with
engaging you in this post.

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